Review of Earthships, book 2
Posted: 23 May 2024, 02:41
[Following is a volunteer review of "Earthships, book 2" by Bonnie Jane Hall.]
5 out of 5 stars.
"Earthships 2036-2041: Earth's Blue Sky: Will Our Children Remember? Book 2" by Bonnie Jane Hall is a remarkably well-crafted piece of storytelling. It takes place at the 'end of time' (Hall's own words), in a future where climate change has run rampant and the world we now know is barely recognizable.
More specifically, the story is set between the years 2036 and 2041, and it follows the experiences of a group of children from a completely devastated world who find themselves living a kind of semi-nomadic existence."
The novel is based on Earthships as the central concept—a climatically sustainable and self-reliant house adapted for a world threatened by climate change. These innovative homes are a statement about human ingenuity and problem-solving in a tale wrapped around the fate of refugees seeking sanctuary in the Southwest region of the United States. Hall's storytelling, which is heavy on a kind of magical and barely believable realism, offers up human endurance, hope, and plenty of prescience.
The tale chronicles a captivating assortment of characters, headed by Dara, Cami, and Rain, who display distinct reactions to the not-surprising-when-you-think-about-it-by-human-standards crises that crop up here and there. Dara mostly works in California; Cami, farther up the coast in what was once Washington state; and Rain, in the area formerly known as Nevada—where Earthships reign supreme at a sob convention.
The novel excels at connecting personal stories with overarching environmental topics. Erika Okrent, writing for Time, praised the book for "crafting a mosaic of interconnected lives that efficiently illustrates many different aspects of life on a planet undergoing global warming." Hall is a master of "show, don't tell," and that efficiency extends to her portrayal of people going about the business of everyday life in a world that is very different from (and in some ways very similar to) our own.
The characters in Hall's work frequently provide for one another in various ways. The representation of communal meal preparation is a recurring thread that stitches the various narratives together. Passed along from one novel to the next, the meals even form something like a signature for Hall. In these scenes, one often hears the quiet chords of human connection, even the unfilled space that can exist when one is unsure about another's existence, as the figure who is present supplies the need of the one who is absent.
In conclusion, Not just an enthralling and mind-provoking story, but a compelling plea for action. The book makes us face up to that need for sustainable living in a climate-threatened world and raises urgent questions about what our response will be. For that alone, it deserves a wide audience. Through her text and, of course, her brilliant imagery, Bonnie Jane Hall tells us the story of Earthship Biotecture in recent years, a story that sparks reflection on the necessity of both innovation and cooperation as we seek to build a more resilient and oh-so-necessary sustainable future. Upon finishing the whole paragraph of the book, I found no trace of typos or inaccuracies. Thus, the book appears to have been impeccably edited, with nothing to manage to dislike.
******
Earthships, book 2
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
5 out of 5 stars.
"Earthships 2036-2041: Earth's Blue Sky: Will Our Children Remember? Book 2" by Bonnie Jane Hall is a remarkably well-crafted piece of storytelling. It takes place at the 'end of time' (Hall's own words), in a future where climate change has run rampant and the world we now know is barely recognizable.
More specifically, the story is set between the years 2036 and 2041, and it follows the experiences of a group of children from a completely devastated world who find themselves living a kind of semi-nomadic existence."
The novel is based on Earthships as the central concept—a climatically sustainable and self-reliant house adapted for a world threatened by climate change. These innovative homes are a statement about human ingenuity and problem-solving in a tale wrapped around the fate of refugees seeking sanctuary in the Southwest region of the United States. Hall's storytelling, which is heavy on a kind of magical and barely believable realism, offers up human endurance, hope, and plenty of prescience.
The tale chronicles a captivating assortment of characters, headed by Dara, Cami, and Rain, who display distinct reactions to the not-surprising-when-you-think-about-it-by-human-standards crises that crop up here and there. Dara mostly works in California; Cami, farther up the coast in what was once Washington state; and Rain, in the area formerly known as Nevada—where Earthships reign supreme at a sob convention.
The novel excels at connecting personal stories with overarching environmental topics. Erika Okrent, writing for Time, praised the book for "crafting a mosaic of interconnected lives that efficiently illustrates many different aspects of life on a planet undergoing global warming." Hall is a master of "show, don't tell," and that efficiency extends to her portrayal of people going about the business of everyday life in a world that is very different from (and in some ways very similar to) our own.
The characters in Hall's work frequently provide for one another in various ways. The representation of communal meal preparation is a recurring thread that stitches the various narratives together. Passed along from one novel to the next, the meals even form something like a signature for Hall. In these scenes, one often hears the quiet chords of human connection, even the unfilled space that can exist when one is unsure about another's existence, as the figure who is present supplies the need of the one who is absent.
In conclusion, Not just an enthralling and mind-provoking story, but a compelling plea for action. The book makes us face up to that need for sustainable living in a climate-threatened world and raises urgent questions about what our response will be. For that alone, it deserves a wide audience. Through her text and, of course, her brilliant imagery, Bonnie Jane Hall tells us the story of Earthship Biotecture in recent years, a story that sparks reflection on the necessity of both innovation and cooperation as we seek to build a more resilient and oh-so-necessary sustainable future. Upon finishing the whole paragraph of the book, I found no trace of typos or inaccuracies. Thus, the book appears to have been impeccably edited, with nothing to manage to dislike.
******
Earthships, book 2
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon